The war in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has been raging since 2011. The ongoing mass slaughter and starvation of innocent children and civilians, and the destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure should scar our hearts and consciousness. Yet the world seems to be indifferent to the bloodshed. The United Nations considers Yemen as the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster.

Following the Arab Spring, Yemeni authoritarian president Salih was forced to resign and his deputy Hadi took over, confronting corruption, oppression, poverty, attacks by Al-Qaeda and many loyal officers to Salih, rebellion by the Shia Houthi minority, and their Sunni supporters.

Since March 2015, a raging civil war and vicious air strikes by a Saudi Arabia-led multinational coalition brutalized the country. Saudi Arabia and eight mostly Sunni Arab states began an air campaign to restore Hadi's government. The U.S., U.K. and France provided logistical and intelligence support. Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a variety of proxy wars around the region.

The militaristic adventurism of the Saudis' young and impulsive Crown Prince Salman is exacerbating regional tensions and proved to be a costly gamble and a failure. The coalition tightened its blockade of Yemen in November 2017 after ballistic missiles were fired against Riyadh resulting in massive famine and serious spread of disease.

The war cost the Saudis $100 billion, eroded the kingdom’s international image, and failed to achieve its objectives of “eliminating Iranian influence.” Saudi Arabia was emboldened by support from the Trump administration while Israel, which sees Iran as a mortal threat, is "backing" the Saudi effort to contain Iran. The coalition cannot win the war, but it can settle it favorably and the United States should help.

Yemen has become a failed and devastated state. Since March 2015, 9,245 people have been killed and 52,800 injured. Coalition air strikes are the leading cause of civilian casualties. According to the U.N. Human Rights Council, civilians have repeatedly been the victims of "unrelenting violations of international humanitarian law." About 75 percent of the population — 22.2 million people — needs humanitarian assistance. Some 17.8 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from, and 8.4 million are considered at risk of starvation. Severe acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of almost 400,000 children under the age of 5. Half of the country's 3,500 health facilities are functioning and at least 16.4 million people lack basic health care. Medics have struggled to cope with the world's largest cholera outbreak, with more than 1 million suspected cases and 2,248 associated deaths since April 2017. More than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including 2 million who remain displaced.

Three years of efforts to achieve lasting ceasefire and several U.N.-led attempts to negotiate a peace deal have failed. The war has set Yemen back decades. Yemen is strategically important. It is located on the Bab al-Mandab strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass.

The U.N. singled out Saudi Arabia and the UAE for causing the majority of civilian casualties as they struck funerals, weddings, refugee camps, hospitals, market places, residential areas, and most recently a school bus killing, 40 children. U.N. reported that coalition and Houthi rebels killed thousands of civilians in airstrikes, tortured detainees, raped civilians and used child soldiers as young as 8 amounting to war crimes. The coalition failed miserably to check its own ”no-strike list” of more than 30,000 sites. Shockingly, Defense Secretary James Mattis stated that the administration supports the Saudi Coalition in its efforts to protect their country and to restore rightful governments in Yemen.

Human Rights Watch warned Britain, France and the U.S. of being potentially complicit in Yemen by their continuing sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, exacerbating regional tensions, and increasing terrorist threats against the West.

Our bombs are killing and maiming innocent children and civilians. Three years of murder, starvation, torture and maiming of civilians supported by our own government is an act of shame and is unworthy of who we are as a nation.

Shams Ghoneim is coordinator for the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Iowa and serves on the Press-Citizen Editorial Board.